Playboy sentenced

A PLAYBOY fraudster on the run since 2006 has been ordered to pay back £1.6m he made through crime. If Raymond Nevitt, thought to be lying low in Spain, doesn’t pay up he’ll face nearly 14 years in jail – when police finally get their hands on him.

A PLAYBOY fraudster on the run since 2006 has been ordered to pay back £1.6m he made through crime.

If Raymond Nevitt, thought to be lying low in Spain, doesn’t pay up he’ll face nearly 14 years in jail – when police finally get their hands on him.

Nevitt, 43, ran a company called Ravelle and a series of associated businesses called PC2Go and Just Printers based in Trafford Park.

He vanished on bail after being sentenced to three years and nine months for a complex business fraud involving more than £3.2m.

Now, following a proceeds of crime hearing in his absence in Manchester, Judge Martin Steiger ordered him to pay back £1.6m within six months or face a further decade in jail when police catch up with him.

Police hope the prospect of a lengthy sentence will prompt him to return home to face the music.

They say if he doesn’t he will be forever looking over his shoulder because international arrest warrants have been issued against him.

DC Julian King said: "This fraud didn’t just affect banks. Dozens of staff lost their jobs as a result of Nevitt’s crimes and several small companies also failed as a result of what he did.

"The investigation is not closed and we are still keen to hear from anyone who may know where he is."

The con involved getting banks and lending institutions to give out massive loans on the back of fictional business transactions.

The court was told he corrupted junior members of staff to go along with the scam.

Described as leading a "vulgar and ostentatious" existence, Nevitt spent the money living the high life, entertaining in top restaurants, buying cars and rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous.

In 2000 he was featured in a television documentary about the Gumball Rally, giving an interview to presenter Ruby Wax after his white Ferrari somersaulted out of control in Latvia.

With money no object, he paid for the crumpled wreckage to be shipped back where it was paraded in Manchester city centre on a lorry, then parked outside one of his favourite nightspots on Deansgate.

OSTENTATIOUS: Ray Nevitt crashed his Ferrari then paraded the wreckage (left) on Deansgate. He has been ordered to pay back £1.6m he made through the proceeds of crime